There presently are systems that allow a subscriber to view selected video information on television. These methods relate to a pre-existing video information or video streams, such as video players reproducing a video movie or program. There are also methods for allowing a subscriber to select to see such video streams using a telephone, for example for pay-per-view applications. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,684 to Clark, et al).
Other applications using a TV screen display for sending textual messages to the subscriber's TV screens are also known (U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,186 to Kawasaki). This patent presents a central facility that transmits, together with a television signal, a message directed to a particular TV set. This message is textual only.
In another invention, (U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,885 to Clark, et al) a central processor sends a display of a menu to the subscriber's television, and the subscriber then selects, using a telephone keypad, a video source to watch. The video source is a pre-recorded video, such as a movie or a program, and is not generated by the processor of the system. The video display from which the subscriber selects a code is a list of all available video sources. This invention is a way of performing a pay-per-view application, and is not an interaction with an information store in which the video screen is dynamically generated as a function of the messages that exist for the used in information store or information stores.
These inventions basically include a table of codes, which is displayed on the TV screen. Upon pressing a certain code on the telephone keypad, instructions are transmitted via the telephony system to the TV broadcaster, who broadcasts a selected video to the TV screen.
Voice, fax, and e-mail messaging systems are examples for messaging systems in general that allow people to leave messages for other subscribers on the system (that subscriber is also called mailbox owner, or just subscriber throughout this document). The most familiar messaging system is a voice-mail system, where a caller can leave a recorded voice message to the called party, if the called party did not answer the call or the line was busy.
Another known messaging system is electronic mail, or e-mail. Fax is another known means of communication. Many telephone system operators offer some kind of messaging to its subscribers, and most telephone and cellular telephone operators offer voice-mail systems.
Unified messaging systems are also known. These systems combine all types of messages and make them appear as “unified” from the standpoint of the user. For example, when a user accesses the unified messaging system using a telephone, the unified messaging tells him/her about all types of messages, including but not limited to voice-mail messages faxes and e-mail messages. Such systems are offered by Lucent-Octel messaging division (USA), Active-Voice (Seattle, USA), AVT (Seattle USA), and Comverse, N.J. USA, for example.
Unified messaging systems are usually connected to a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and also to the LAN (Local Area Network), and provide their user with a graphical user interface that runs on his/her PC (personal computer), in addition to the telephone user interface. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,540. Unified messaging systems that are used by service-providers (such as GTE, USA or JFAX, USA) are connected both to the telephone switch and to the Internet, and provide the user also with a graphical user interface that is accessed from his web-browser program or other Internet-based applications.
None of these systems allow a subscriber to have, on his or her TV, a display containing a list of all messages that originally arrived from the telephony or the e-mail network and were sent to him (such as voice-mail message, fax, video messages) and then to selectively select from the messages list a message, and to play or view this or these messages either using the TV capabilities, or set-top box capabilities, or a telephone capabilities, and have additional control over one or more of these messages, such as delete it or reply to it.